The pain was instant, and blood pooled from her split lip.
Closing her eyes, she tried not to cry.
“Do you really think you’ve got a chance of getting away? No one knows where you are. No one knows who I am.”
She had faith that Richard and his brothers would find her. They were billionaires for fuck’s sake, with all the latest technology, and they were geniuses. She just had to stay alive long enough for Richard to come.
****
“You’re going to be okay. You’ve got to fucking live. I’m not having Temperance tell me I failed if you die. Do you hear me?”
“Mr. Bruce, we’ve got to take him now.”
An oxygen mask covered Jay’s face, and the paramedics were working hard to keep him alive. “You keep him alive. Anything happens to him, and I’ll own your asses and your hospital.”
“We will do everything we can.”
Jay removed his mask, looking paler by the second. “Go and get our girl. Now!”
Richard charged for the elevator and made his way back to his apartment. Lewis was on the computer still, using his own technology to get what he wanted.
“Do you have her?”
“Whoever took her is not that bright. They didn’t even mask the fucking car, and he led us right to an abandoned warehouse near a port. It’s thirty minutes out.”
Richard moved toward his office, going into his safe and grabbing out two of his guns. He walked back into the main room. “Call our informant. Tell him everything, and make sure he gets there soon.” He wasn’t going to wait around.
“It’s already done, Richard. A group of SWAT is circling the building. It seems this man, known as ‘the torturer’, was on their most wanted list.”
Richard rushed out of the apartment. He was going to be there when they stormed that fucking building, and he was going to save his woman.
****
Temperance was in pain, in so much pain that an aspirin wouldn’t cure her. She was no longer sitting, but the bastard had started to show her exactly what he did to train the little pets.
This man needed to be stopped.
She was completely naked, and he’d touched her. Just remembering his hands on her made her want to vomit, which she already had done, and it was a struggle not to step in the mess. He’d turned her so that she was facing the wall, and then started to use all kinds of whips, or devices, or something that had made the flesh on her back burn.
“Well, I think you may have turned me to fat women,” he said, moving to stand behind her. He wrapped his fist in her hair, pulling her head back to look at her. He wrapped his fingers around her throat, cutting off her air supply. She couldn’t do anything to stop it. She was at his mercy, her arms bound up. “Such a beautiful body for me to play with. I always thought slender women were the best, but the curvier you are, the more rounded places to hit. You’re a little more durable as well.” He slapped her ass, and finally released her throat. She took great gasps of air, precious air.
Before she’d taken enough, he did the same.
“All you’ve got to do is be good, and you’ll get everything you want.”
Follow the rules to be rewarded, break them, and you’ll be punished.
She squeezed her eyes shut, hating how degrading this was. No matter what she couldn’t let Richard or the BBMC stop their hunt for men like this.
There were women out there being tortured, used, manipulated, and she was going to see that it was stopped.
Temperance didn’t care that for every person they brought down, another took their place. They would just have to keep on fighting until all the men were brought to justice, and it was a mission she was going to fight for.
He released her throat, and she gasped for breath.
“I’m impressed. You’re not screaming or begging me to stop.”
He ran his hands all over her body, and she tried to think of the men in her life.
Be strong for Jay and Richard.
Be strong.
Don’t give up.
Don’t give in.
Fight.
She couldn’t give up. There was too much to lose now.
The man started hitting her, beating her with something like wood, and the pain was making her dizzy. She couldn’t keep holding on. She was at the point where she wanted to give in. Each slap to the skin was as bruising as the last.
There was no respite to the pain. She couldn’t handle anymore.
Just as she was about to scream for mercy, she heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. In a bizarre twist the sound of gunfire actually stopped the pain she was feeling. She couldn’t see anything as she was facing the wall. All the time she heard shouts and gunfire, fear gripped her in ways she wasn’t prepared for.
What was going on?